Inflatable devices are used in many surgical and minimally invasive surgical (MIS) techniques and settings. Medical balloons with thinner walls, higher strength, and smaller profiles are designed to withstand high inflation pressures and are well suited for use in a broad range of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. They can be produced in a variety of lengths, diameters, and shapes, including complex custom shapes for specific applications, and supplied with specialty coatings for added performance. In a typical MIS procedure, uninflated devices are positioned within an anatomical space and then filled with air or fluid to expand the device and possibly the anatomical space itself. This procedure is used to deliver a prosthetic heart valve or stent to a cardiac or vascular structure. Alternatively, an inflatable device can be used to dilate an anatomical structure, as in angioplasty procedures. Other surgical procedures that incorporate the use of inflatable devices include, for example, kyphoplasty, nephrostomy, gastric balloon placement, endometrial ablation, laparoscopic hernia repair and renal denervation. Furthermore, inflatable devices can be used in the obstruction, dilation and/or stent placement within the following anatomical structures: sinuses, intestines, lacrimal ducts, Carpal tunnels, Eustachian tubes, the uterus, ureters, bile ducts, the trachea, the esophagus, the urethra, and the nasal passages. This list does not include all procedures that use inflatable devices, but is meant to demonstrate the breadth of this invention's relevance.
By way of example, inflatable devices are used in transcatheter aortic heart valve delivery procedures. In this procedure, a guidewire is delivered through the femoral artery, through the patient's vasculature to the native aortic valve, and placed within the left ventricle. A first balloon mounted on a catheter is inserted over the guidewire into the aortic valve and inflated to widen the structure. The first balloon is removed back down the guidewire. A second, folded balloon carrying the new prosthetic heart valve is delivered to the patient's diseased aortic valve. Alternatively, a prosthetic heart valve may be moved onto the balloon once it is inside the patient's body. Once positioned, the folded balloon is inflated and the previously crimped valve is expanded to its full diameter. At its full diameter, the stent is lodged within the native heart valve. The second balloon is deflated and is routed back down the patient's vasculature and out the femoral artery via the guidewire, leaving the new valve in place.
Given their role in treating a range of patient conditions, improvements in inflatable devices are highly desirable.